Longwall mining is a method of mining in which a relatively long mining face (typically in the range 200 to 460 m) that is created by driving a roadway at right angles between two continuous miner sections that form the sides of the longwall block, with one rib of this new roadway forming the longwall face. Once the longwall face equipment has been installed, coal can be extracted along the full length of the face in slices of a given width using a shearer depositing coal on an armored face conveyor. The modern longwall face is supported by hydraulically powered roof supports and these supports are progressively advanced to support the newly extracted face as slices are taken, allowing the section where the coal had previously been excavated and supported to collapse. This process is repeated continuously, thus completely removing a rectangular block of coal.
Shortwall mining is a method of mining in which a continuous miner cuts and loads from a shorter mining face (typically in the range of 30 to 200 m) that is created by driving a roadway between two continuous miner sections that for the sides of the block, with one rib of this new roadway forming the shortwall face. Once the shortwall face equipment has been installed, coal can be extracted along the full length of the face in slices determined by the cutting width of the continuous miner. The excavated material is loaded by the continuous miner to haulage systems. Ventilation and haulage is provided from the headgate entries.